For sake of argument, Socrates and Euthyphro agree that the first is true, but Socrates argues that if the second is also true and something is pious because the gods love it, then the first and second together would yield a self-perpetuating cycle.

The dialectic gets at some of the central questions of morality (sovereignty, omnipotence, freedom of the will, morality without God) and has implications not only for metaphysics and theology, but also for epistemology.